Asia picks its words of the year, and they are a bunch of sad characters

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Obsession

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Written by

Obsession

Asia has chosen some somber words to sum up its year. China Realtime Report rounded up the character of the year (kanji of the year in Japan) from five Asian nations, which were based on polls or selected by a committee. Unlike Oxford Dictionaries’ choice for word of the year, these characters capture a sense of people’s anxiety and, in one case, of collective achievement.

Even as real estate inflation in China is cooling down, the cost of buying a home in first-tier cities is still sky-high, smaller cities face rumors of collapsing prices, and the rent is too damn high.

This character was chosen to represent how the Japanese people worked together to win the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, and how they endured the natural calamities that have struck the country.